The Mountain Lord's Lair of Treasures

"The taste of living humans is truly excellent!" The Mountain Lord licked the blood from his lips, looking as if he hadn't had his fill.

"Mountain Lord, there's still one who ran off over there." Old Zhang reminded, pointing at Yang Li.

He didn't want anyone to safely return to Blackwater County and expose his collusion with the Mountain Lord to frame others.

The Mountain Lord sneered, "His kidney's injured, he can't run far. By the way, didn't you say there were four people? Why are there only three..."

"I'm not sure either. Maybe he died in the underground river..." Old Zhang said uncertainly.

"I'll have the Ghost Servant go look."

The Mountain Lord suddenly opened his mouth wide, and from within crawled a floating, insubstantial figure.

Old Zhang couldn't see it; only the Mountain Lord could.

This was the Ghost Servant—the same one that had possessed the hunter earlier.

A Ghost Servant was a Lesser Ghost formed after a person was bitten to death by a tiger. It obeyed the tiger completely and would lure others into the tiger's jaws.

It posed no threat to a strong, robust Martial Artist, only bullying ordinary people.

This was the Mountain Lord's last Ghost Servant.

As for Zhou Fei, who had just been bitten to death, the Ghost Servant forming from him was still coalescing inside the Mountain Lord's body and wouldn't appear for a while.

The Ghost Servant, its face pale and grim, walked toward the entrance of the underground river.

And there, Zhao Han was crouching low, observing everything.

"This Mountain Lord is badly wounded. If I use lime mixed with water, I should be able to subdue it!" Zhao Han narrowed his eyes, thinking to himself.

Zhao Han couldn't see the Mountain Lord's Ghost Servant, but after tossing down the Yin Wood, he stepped back and soon felt the chill from the Yin Wood Jade Pendant intensify.

Sensing the cold approach, Zhao Han calculated the Ghost Servant's speed and slowly moved backward, avoiding its line of sight.

Then, the Mountain Lord unhurriedly went to hunt down Yang Li, while Old Zhang gleefully looted the corpses.

The hunter's corpse and Zhou Fei's corpse—there should be plenty of good stuff on them.

Plus the cloth bag holding the python beside them—this trip was a huge score.

But just as he gathered all the valuables, a hand suddenly landed on his shoulder.

"Old Zhang, what are you doing here?" Zhao Han said with a light laugh.

Having just jumped into the underground river to avoid the Ghost Servant, Zhao Han had come back out and retrieved the Yin Wood.

The Ghost Servant, after all, was just a Lesser Ghost. It only obeyed the Mountain Lord's orders and stupidly walked deeper inside, never noticing Zhao Han.

"Oh, it's you, young friend. You're alive—that's great! Those two were both bitten to death by the tiger, and Old Yang went to lure the tiger away." Old Zhang turned his head, his expression unchanged.

Zhao Han chuckled, "Is that so? And what are you doing now?"

Old Zhang said calmly, "I'm just collecting the bodies for these two brave men. They have wives and children to support at home. I want to send their bodies back and sell the python too. The money will all be delivered to their families."

"Then hand it over to me for safekeeping. I'll make sure it reaches their families." Zhao Han reached for the valuables.

"Whoosh!"

Suddenly, Old Zhang flung a handful of white powder at Zhao Han, then turned and bolted for the exit.

Unfortunately for him, Zhao Han was prepared. He dodged the powder in a flash, then caught up to Old Zhang in two quick strides.

He reached out, grabbed his shoulder, and yanked him back.

"You really think I didn't see anything?"

"Bam!"

"Crack..."

A punch smashed into Old Zhang's nose bridge, breaking it.

"Mercy, mercy, good sir..." Old Zhang trembled, pleading in pain.

"Tell me, do you know where the Mountain Lord hides its treasure?" Zhao Han barked.

Old Zhang sobbed, "I, I don't know. The Mountain Lord has always been wary of us humans."

"Since you don't know, then die!"

Zhao Han twisted his hand and clamped down on Old Zhang's neck. With a "crack," Old Zhang's eyes bulged as he died on the spot.

Having dealt with Old Zhang, Zhao Han immediately gathered the loot and then searched Old Zhang's body.

A cloth bag holding two pythons.

A total of ten taels of silver.

A low-grade book of Military Archery.

One saber and one short knife.

One bow and ten arrows.

Zhao Han took out the Basic Archery and stored everything else into the System Space.

[Note: System Space cannot store living creatures.]

Zhao Han froze. Live things?

He looked at the cloth bundle holding the pythons—those two were exactly that, live things.

He immediately took out the two pythons and chopped off their heads. Now they weren't live things anymore.

After stowing all the loot into his space, Zhao Han spent five taels of silver to simplify Basic Archery.

Archery and martial arts were still different; mastering archery had great potential.

Basic Archery [Simplified, Unclassified, Not Started 0/10, Throw a stone into a jar ten meters away ten times]

"That's pretty simple, isn't it? A piece of cake!"

Zhao Han put away Basic Archery, tossed Old Zhang's corpse to a spot out of sight on the left, then entered the stone chamber on the right.

The Mountain Lord was recovering here; there was likely something hidden in this place.

This stone chamber seemed man-made. Inside were still a stone table and stone stools, along with a stone stove for fire and ventilation holes.

Zhao Han quickly searched and soon found a pull ring.

He pulled it, and a double door swung wide open.

"I knew it."

Zhao Han stepped in slowly, not entering fully—only half his body leaned in as he continued to inspect.

If the door closed once he was inside, he'd be waiting to die.

A glance left and right confirmed there was another pull ring inside. Whether from outside or inside, the door could be opened or closed.

Still, to be safe, Zhao Han moved two stone stools to block the doorway, then lit a torch and went in to investigate.

"Tsk, so many copper coins on the ground!"

As soon as he entered, Zhao Han saw scattered copper coins on the floor, roughly several thousand in number.

Besides that, there were some scattered bits of silver mixed in.

Nearby was a tiger's nest, layered several times thick with animal pelts stripped off by the Mountain Lord.

Beside the tiger's nest lay a fair amount of silver, along with one tael of gold.

In addition, there was a small chest containing several secret manuals and some jewelry and jade items.

"I'm rich!"

Zhao Han's eyes blazed with greedy heat, and he immediately stepped forward to tally up.

A rough count:

One tael of gold.

Fifty taels of silver.

Four taels of loose silver on the ground.

Over three thousand copper coins.

Two jade items, five pieces of jewelry—each could sell for over five taels of silver.

And four secret manuals.

One unclassified Snake-Style Deft Hand.

One unclassified Fierce Tiger Palm.

One unclassified Eighteen Paths of Swift Blade.

And one classified-level Tiger Subduing Fist.

For the three unclassified common martial arts, Zhao Han casually tossed them into his space.

No matter how much you practiced unclassified martial arts, they weren't much use. Better to directly train in the classified-level Tiger Subduing Fist.

Fierce Tiger Palm—just from the name, it was clearly the same type of martial art as Tiger Subduing Fist. Simplifying Fierce Tiger Palm wasn't as effective as simplifying Tiger Subduing Fist directly.

"Simplify!"

Twenty taels of silver vanished, and Zhao Han immediately looked at the panel.

Tiger Subduing Fist [Simplified, Classified, Not Started 0/10, Strike a tiger ten times]

"This... is practically a martial art delivered right to my door!" Zhao Han chuckled lightly. Wasn't there a tiger right outside?